Process of forming flakes of heated plastics and gelatinous materials



May 4 1926. 1,583,484

H. .J. MORRISON ET AL PRbCBSS OF FORMING FLAKES OF HEATED PLASTICS ANDGELATINOUS MATERIALS Filed May 9 1925 Patented May 4, 1926.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

mun: .1. mormrson, or CINCINNATI, JAMES E. EGAN, on'wromme, AND SUMNERm. MANLEY, or GLENDALE, on1o.-

PROCESS OF FORMING FLAKES OF HEATED PLASTICS AND GELATINOUS MATERIALS.

Application med May 9, 1925. Serial 1%. 29,267.

To all whom it may concern: I

Be it known that we, HARLEY J. MoniusoN, of Cincinnati, JAMES E. EGAN,of Wyoming, and SUMNER M. MANLEY, of Glendale, all

i citizens of the United States, residing in the county of Hamilton andState of Ohio, haye invented new and useful Improvements in Processes ofForming Flakes of Heated Plastics and Gelatinous Materials, of which thefollowing is a full, clear, and exact description, reference being hadto the accompanying drawings, forming part of t-lll'S specification. v

Our invention relates to processes of forming flakes from variousplastics, and gelatinous materials and particularly to such of thelastics, and gelatinous materials as congea and set upon cooling.

It is the object of our invention, as will be 2 hereinafter pointed outand claimed, to form from such materials as set upon cooling, ribbons ofuniform thinness which Wlll, in the steps of the process incident to thepackaging, be broken up into flakes. It is further our object toovercome the variation in thinness of flakes which has characterized theproducts of prior methods of manufacture.

It will be readily understood that such products which are soluble inwater will have 3 a solubility directly proportionate to the surfaceexposure, so that it is a further object of our invention to provide forthe manufacture of much more soluble materials in flake form.

Some of the materials which are now manufactured in flake form are notreadily soluble and have a displeasing appearance due to irregularity inthickness and general form.

Our process further offers a novel method of 40 forming rea'dily solubleproducts which should appeal to manufacturers who are not,

at present, forming the materials which they manufacture into flakeform.

In the prior art it is'old to dispose a heated liquid of semi-plasticmaterial on a cooling roll and to regulate the thickness of the coat ingof material from a'hopper onto a roll by a knife or gate, usuallyforming one side of the hopper. It is also old to transpose the coatingfrom the rollon which the trough or hopper is mounted onto other rolls.These other rolls have usually been .a series of three or more,variously heated or cooled, and the gelatinous or plastic coat-ing hasbeen chilled and semi-solidified in stages as it has been transferredfrom one roll to another. A serrate or straight bladed knife, disposedon the last roll of the series, has also been used to strip the coatingfrom the roll in ribbonsof any desired width, or as a continuous sheethaving a width of the chilling roll. The product of manufacture on suchequipment has been characterized by uneven-thickness and a rough unevenstructure, due to the breaking up of the plastic or gelled material intransposing it from one roll to another,

and also due to the uneven feeding of the material under the adjustmentgate on the hopper on the first roll.

For a number of years we have attempted to discharge these plasticmaterials onto a large roll such as is familiar in the art for the useand manufacture of lard and lard compound, and to. make a satisfactoryflake on such equipment.

Rolls used in the chilling of lard and lard compound are not equippedwith a regulating gate or other device, the film being picked up by arotating roll and the thickness being regulated by the speed of theroll. This kind of roll is satisfactory where the material being'handledis in a liquid and quite fluid condition. The film, however, even in thecase of very fluid material being used, cannot be made with the thinnessdesired in many other products.

We have found that, if these plastics or gels are properly fed onto asingle large roll and properly cooled and congealed to a point where thefilm can be stripped off in a continuous manner, it has a smoother,brighter, and less opaque texture in the finished product. We have foundthat the film on the roll must be adjusted with extreme care and Ievenness. For those materials which tend to 95 congeal in the feedhopper, the use of a gate or knife regulator does not provide thisnecessary nicety of regulation, and the aperture under the knife iseasily clogged by some of the partially congealed material.

We have further been able to secure a much nicer adjustment of a film onacooling roll by regulating the thickness of the film by an'aperturebetween the congealing roll and a feed roll adjustably mounted with re-105 lation to thecongealing roll, than has herea hopper regulating thethickness oft the sides of the tofore been possible wtih a knife or ateon e film on a roll.

Referring to the drawing:

The figure represents diagrammatically a section of a suitablearrangement of rolls for clarrying out our process. In the diagram t earge congealing roll is shown at 1. A

hopper 2 may be conveniently disposed in the position shown with theadjustable feed roll 3 mounted so as to form anaperture 3 extendingacross the congealing roll between the two rolls. The bottom of thehopper is open and the sides closed to retain the gel within thehopper-and'to keep an ample supply for the congealing roll to withdrawcontinuously. In the figure the gel within the hopper is indicated at 4and the film on the congealingroll at 5. A stripping knife 5 is disposedin position to strip the film from the roll and the congealed film 6drops down to the belt conveyor 6 which conveys the sheet or the ribbonsthus formed to the following steps in the process of manufactureincident to the packaging of the flakes. I a

The rolls may conveniently be'hollow so that suitable means may beemployed for heating the feed roll if desired or cooling the congealingroll if the gels do not set naturally. The usual direction of therotation of the rolls is in an opposite direction and this brings thetwo surfaces of the rolls toward one another at the admission aperture.It is furthermore usual to dispose the hopper as shown although we havebeen able to secure good results on certain kinds of gels by merelyfeeding the gel or plastic between the two rolls Where it forms into asemi-aerated roll of material which is gradually drawn in between thetwo rolls by the congealing roll. This latter method is particularlyeffective when the rolls are rotated in the same directions and thefeed. roll tends to carry the material away from the aperture and thecongealing roll to carry the material through the aperture.

The congealing roll and the feed roll may be rotated at speeds which,for each material handled, are the most suitable. It is further ofadvantage, in preventing the tendency of ribbons from curling in, tostretch the ribbons as they feed from the stripping knife onto theconveyor. This may be accomplished by several methods, one of the mosteffective of which seems to be to so regulate the speed of the conveyorthat it has a fasterlineal speed than the peripheral speed of thecongealing roll so that the ribbons dropping against the conveyor tendto adhere to it. By thus operating the conveyor at a faster lineal speedthan the peripheral speed of the congealing roll the ribbons arestretched out as indicated at 7.- This operation also tends to diminishthe thickness of the/ribbons so that it has a two fold advantage. I

The temperature control at which various gels and plastics will congealwill of course vary with the particular material used so that we do notwish to confine ourselves to limited ranges of temperature for anyspecific material. The hollow feature of the rolls will, of course,enable any desired degree of temperature to be induced in the congealingor feeding roll by the admission of heating or cooling mediums.

A specific use for our process is in the preparation of edible gelatineflakes, where it is desirable to have a product which is clear, smoothand uncurled, and otherwise pleasing in appearance and where itsthickness is so uniformly regulated and thin that is dissolves quicklyand readily. All of these features add materially to its convenience inuse and to the economy of time in preparing it in solution ready foruse.

In the foregoing specification the term gels and plastics are usedsynonymously. In some schools of chemistry the terms are consideredsynonymous and in others a sharp distinction is drawn. In the claimsthat follow, while we have limited ourselves to the term gel it shouldbe understood that in using the term, we wish to be understood asreferring to both plastics and gels as understood by the first mentionedschool.

Having thus described our invention, what we claim as new and. desire tosecure by Letters Patent, is:

1. The process of forming flakes of semisolid gels which harden uponcooling comprising the disposing of such gels at an aperture between ahot rotating roll and a cold rotating roll, solidifying a filmintroduced at such an aperture on the cold roll during a portion of thecycle of revolution of the cold roll, and stripping the solidified filmfrom the roll.

2. The process of forming flakes of semisolid gels which harden uponcooling com= prising the disposing of such gels at an aperture between aheated rotating hollow roll, and a cooled hollow rotating roll, c0ngealing a film of the gel introduced at such an aperture on the lastnamed roll during a portion of the cycle of revolution of the roll, andstripping the congealed film from the roll.

3. The process of fori'ning'flakes of semisolid gels which harden uponcooling comprising the disposing of such materials at an aperturebetween a hot rotating roll and a cold rotating roll, solidifying a filmintro duced at such an aperture on the cold roll during a portion of thecycle of revolution of the cold roll, scraping the solidified film fromthe roll in the form of ribbons and mechanically stretching the ribbons.

4. The process of forming'flakes comprising the feeding of a semi-solidfilm of gel which hardens upon cooling, bya hot and a cold rota-tingroll having a longitudinal aperture between them, and cooling said coldroll so that the film will adhere thereto and cooling the film on thecold roll during a portion of the cycle of revolution of the cold rolland scraping the film from the roll.

5. The process of forming flakes comprising the introduction of a hot.gel through a longitudinal opening between a cooled rotatingcylindrical element, and a hot rotating cylindrical element, cooling thecooled ele ment so as to cause the gel to adhere thereto in a film andstripping the cooled vfilm from the cooled element in the form ofribbons.

6. The process of forming flakes comprising the introduction of a hotgel through a longitudinal opening between a cooled rotating cylindricalelement, and a hot rotating cylindrical element, cooling the cooledelement so as to cause the els to adhere thereto in a film and strippingthe cooled film from the cooled element in the form of ribbons andmechanically attenuating the ribbons to reduce their thlckness.

HARLEY J. MORRISON. JAMES E. EGAN. SUMNER M. MANLEY.

